Max China's Blog, page 5

Atrament Speaks by C McDonald

Atrament Speaks by C. McDonald

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, completing it only recently. I understand it will be released soon, so I thought I'd best review it while it is still fresh in my mind.

Atrament Speaks is set in a sort of parallel world to ours called Noor, the place of perfect light. The story opens with a glimpse of the brilliant colours that abound within it, the author's 'camera' pans over the landscape quickly coming in to focus on Clara Maddingley and Persimmony Clump. In this world, the language spoken is a hybrid eighteenth century style of English, and the people and creatures that populate it are similar to those in our own world. At the beginning, Clara meets Atrament, the last true descendant of The Disobedient Ones, and hears him speak for the first time, and after that she carries his voice with her by means of a device he gifts her, along with something else . . .
For faded, read dead. For haran, read horse . . . all becomes clear with continued reading, and as with the other colloquial peculiarities of the language, takes no time at all to get used to, in fact it adds a certain depth and credibility to the story. After a few pages a kind of fluency takes over, and when it does, this sweeping, epic tale really begins to unfold. It is intricately woven, but the pace is unaffected by the detailing. This work is worthy, in my opinion, of the rating I have given it. I have also read the second part of this trilogy and I believe that if you enjoyed Tolkein, or realistic fantasy in general, then you are in for a treat.




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The Sister book giveaway

For the chance to win a brand new paperback copy of my new crime thriller novel The Sister enter the giveaway competition below. Good luck!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sister


by Max China

Giveaway ends December 11, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Who'll stop the rain (Dog Soldiers)

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have a suitcase full of paperback books from last time we moved house, all the shelf space being taken up mostly with hardbacks. Seeing Dog Soldiers again on goodreads, I just had to find it and read it all over again. For me, a mark of a good book is when it reads better second time around - and I did that years ago. Reading it for a third time was like coming home. I really enjoyed it. There's a sense of inevitability that comes through in this story perhaps beginning with the expectation of rain. . .
If anyone is coming to this the first time, yes it is a bit dated, but well worth a read.
My favourite character was Hicks.



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Can't load ebook on goodreads...

I've tried several times now this morning to load an epub version and then a pdf upload. Neither works.

If anyone is interested in a preview around 20k words is viewable on amazon using the the 'look inside feature'

Meanwhile,I'm off to do some writing:)